By Forris Day Jr.
Usually when I start a book I have to finish it, but that was not the case with “But By the Chance of War” by Richard C. Lyons. I didn’t finish it, not because it is a bad book. It is certainly quite incredible. It’s just written in a style I just did not enjoy, and uses so many obscure words for my taste. I quite frankly stopped looking them up by page 12. Let me first tell you a bit about the style of the book, as it is something I have never seen before and I found very interesting.
It is comprised of four plays. It is written almost as if it were the script for these plays. They are about four different wars, in four different lands. They can be read in any order you choose. Then it gets more intriguing, as each play is written as a poem in the heroic couplet style. I’m sure most poets know what that is, but I didn’t. I was able to figure it out somewhat as I read. It’s a pretty hefty book which I like right off the bat, but once I started reading it I asked what I got myself into.
I honestly tried to involve myself in the stories, which I can tell are quite good and well written, but the repetitive beat of the poetic style of it quickly became too much for me, and again I kept having to look up words. I have no doubt that someone who is far more intelligent than myself would truly enjoy reading this, for I can tell that Lyons put all of his heart and soul into this majestic piece of work. The downfall here is quite simply me. I am not the audience for it. For example, I don’t enjoy the writings of Shakespeare. Was he a bad writer? Certainly not. As a matter of fact I believe that anyone who loves Shakespeare, would absolutely devour “But By the Chance of War”, and I ask that if you are a fan of old William, and you do read Lyon’s book, please let me know what YOU thought. I would love to hear you opinion.
It’s a challenging read to say the least, but if your up for it, buy it, read it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Rating: 5/10 – “To read or not to read? That is the question”
